(Religion News Service) — Rabbi David Saperstein will be named the next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, the first non-Christian to hold the job since it was created in 1998. As ambassador, the man named as the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine in 2009, will head the State Department’s Office of International…
(JTA) — A pox on both your houses, but when you want a cure, we’re still here. That is the message the Obama administration is sending Israel and the Palestinians amid the deepening crisis in peace efforts. “What we haven’t seen is, frankly, the kind of political will to actually make tough decisions. And that’s…
White House Photo What would you do if you’d have to choose between spending the second night of Passover with your family (and with your twins celebrating their birthday on that same day) and laboring in someone else’s kitchen for hours? For acclaimed chef/beloved wife Vered Guttman, there wasn’t much of a dilemma. She gladly…
White House Photo (Haaretz) — Cooking for twenty people doesn’t usually faze me, even when it’s for a Passover Seder, but the Seder I helped prepare last night was for Michelle and Barack Obama. After days of long discussions about menu options and in order to add some interest, it was decided that alongside the Passover…
President Barack Obama has not made a decision to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday. “Jonathan Pollard was convicted of espionage and he is serving his sentence,” Carney said. “I don’t have any other update to provide you on Mr. Pollard’s status. There are obviously a lot…
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meeting with President Obama to discuss the peace talks with Israel, said “time is not on our side.” “We don’t have any time to waste,” Abbas said Monday while greeting Obama in the White House Oval Office, according to pool reports distributed by the White House. “Time is not on…
The White House released a statement marking Purim that includes a recipe for hamantaschen, the holiday’s traditional snack. The statement was released Friday, in advance of the beginning of the holiday Saturday night. It retells the Purim story of the ancient Persian Jews’ triumph over evil, and notes that “these themes resonate throughout the centuries…
President Barack Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that Washington remains committed to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and also called on Israel and the Palestinians to compromise to reach a U.S.-brokered peace framework. In a meeting at the White House, Netanyahu told Obama that no country has a greater stake…
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